Dani Peters & Breanna Gray

Professional Inquiry Project Summary

For our professional inquiry project, we collaborated to research a new period called
FOCUS at Hunting Hills High School. FOCUS was designed as a 30 minute period where
student attendance was mandatory. While FOCUS was a mandatory block, students were
not required to be in a classroom setting, as they could also use gathering areas, computer
labs, and the gym. A main goal of FOCUS was to increase high school graduation rates. Staff
were to spend targeted time on students with the greatest needs in order to meet this goal.
FOCUS left many unanswered questions to the administration and staff at our school. The
staff and administration wanted to know what would make FOCUS most effective. The
common question we heard was Is FOCUS a valuable use of students and teachers time?
In order to help the school out, we decided to look into how students perceived FOCUS. We
wanted students input and feedback on what teachers could do to help them succeed.
We wanted to find out how the students wanted to use FOCUS and what they thought
would be most beneficial for their learning. Our first step was to find out what the students
wanted out of FOCUS. We surveyed a variety of math and science students to discover
initial impressions of FOCUS using Google forms. After the first survey, we made changes to
what we were doing in FOCUS based on the results. A month later, we gave the same
students a follow up survey to see if the changes were effective. The results that we
collected from both surveys were extremely beneficial to the whole school.
Our initial survey was completed by 241 students in grades 9-12. The students were in a
variety of math and science classes. We included advanced and regular classes so that we
had a wide sample. In our initial survey we asked students how many times a week they
felt they should attend FOCUS. The majority of students felt they should be attending
FOCUS five, three or two times a week. We then asked students how many time a week they
actually attended FOCUS and the results were lower at three, one, or zero times a week.
This showed us that students were not taking full responsibility for their learning. They
knew they should be attending FOCUS more frequently, but were making the decision to
not attend.
In order to find out what students thought would be the most valuable use of their time, we
asked students what they would like to attend during FOCUS. They were able to choose
from options such as homework help, lesson reteach, studying habits, note taking help and
learning activities as well as add items that would be beneficial to their learning. Students
thought that homework help and lesson reteaching would improve their academic
achievement the most. Overwhelmingly, students prefer to have teacher assistance from
their subject teacher, rather than someone else. In general, students believe that FOCUS
will better their academic standing. Most commonly we found that students liked that
FOCUS gave them extra time to do their homework that they may not do otherwise.
After our initial survey, we made changes and adjustments to what we were doing during
FOCUS. We allowed students to come in for homework help on a daily basis. We provided

Dani Peters & Breanna Gray

them with a quiet area to work on the various subjects they needed to get caught up in, or
we assisted them with tough questions. We retaught one or two lessons a week during
FOCUS. This was optional to all students, but we were also able to assign students where
we felt necessary. We found that being able to assign students to a session was a vital part
of FOCUS that made it successful. Not all students have the maturity or will power to make
responsible decisions for themselves during FOCUS. Re-teaching sessions were for
important concepts and material that students would need to know in order to move
forward in the class and subject.
The follow up survey allowed us to see how our adjustments were perceived. Similar
students to the original sample were surveyed again. Once again we asked students how
many times they feel they should attend FOCUS. Students responded lower this time with
an average of one or two times a week. There was a very wide and even spread of how
often students actually attend FOCUS. Students attend FOCUS anywhere from zero to five
times a week. 33% of students have not attended a FOCUS session where there was teacher
assistance. When considering the overall goal of FOCUS, this number seems completely
reasonable. We want to target a specific population of students who need extra support.
This should not include all students. However, what this data does not tell us is whether
these are the students who actually need the individualized support.
For students who had attended FOCUS for a lesson reteach, 77% thought it was beneficial
and helped them academically. 86% of students who had attended FOCUS with teacher
assistance thought it was beneficial to their learning. Students were also asked what they
did during FOCUS. The most common item that students did during FOCUS was homework,
followed by hanging out with friends and teacher assisted homework help.
Overall we saw that FOCUS is being utilized by students within our school. We think that
each student needs something different for FOCUS depending on their needs. Some
students need to use the 30 minutes as a mental break, while others need to use it to catch
up on missed material. Most students showed that they did use FOCUS based upon their
personal needs. Collectively as a school and personally as a teacher, we feel it is important
that we understand what students need in order to guide their schooling. If Hunting Hills
wants FOCUS to be student centered and address the needs of students then we can
continue on a path of allowing them in open areas, doing homework, talking with friends,
while others go in for more assisted help when needed. If we want FOCUS to be
academically centered, we need to make classroom attendance mandatory, and not allow
students in free areas.
In order to determine whether FOCUS is effective we must reconsider the original goal of
FOCUS. If we want to increase graduation rates and and support the students who need it
most, then all students do not have to be in the classroom learning during FOCUS. Some
students may find it more beneficial to decompress from class before heading into the last
class of the day. The challenge is that we are leaving the responsibility up to the students to
make wise decisions about their learning. We believe that students need to be educated to
make responsible decisions about their learning.

Dani Peters & Breanna Gray

In conclusion, most students at Hunting Hills High School agree that FOCUS can help them
academically. Teachers need to play their part by supporting students in their learning and
providing opportunities for students to grow. We can do this by helping students with
homework and any questions, as well as providing re-teaching sessions for important
outcomes. Moving forward, we need to educate the students at Hunting Hills to make wise
decisions about what would benefit their learning the most.